Astral glyphs

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"Number 83: Galaxy Queen (DARK)" written in Astral (top) and Japanese (bottom).
The special "Number 39: Utopia" released in Battles of Legend: Armageddon, printed in Astral glyphs.

Astral glyphs (アストラル Asutoraru Moji)[1] are the writing system used by those in Astral World in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL anime. It was designed by Ikki Harada, a professor of the Shunan University.[2]

The glyphs are a cipher of Japanese. For most glyphs, each corresponds to a single kana character, with the Astral glyph being a stylized version of the katakana character.

A special version of "Number 39: Utopia" written in Astral glyphs was released in Collection Pack 2020 and Battles of Legend: Armageddon. A special version of "Number 17: Leviathan Dragon" written in Astral glyphs was released in Animation Chronicle 2021 and Brothers of Legend.

Conversion[edit]

Astral text is mostly a cipher of Japanese. Glyphs correspond to either a single kana character, decimal digit, symbol, or the key terms "Number" or "Number C". Attributes also have equivalent Astral glyphs, but these are used exclusively in the Attribute icon of cards (card text spells out Attributes using kana equivalents).

There is no Astral glyph equivalent of the chōonpu (ー); if the equivalent Japanese text contains one, it is replaced by the vowel it is extending.

Xyz Monsters' material has a unique syntax on cards written in Astral text. It is written as <☆ repeated a number of times equal to the monster's Rank> × <number of Xyz Materials, repeated that many times>. If the materials are required to be a specific Attribute, this is prepended by the required Attribute and a slash. For example, the material requirements for "Number C39: Utopia Ray" are written as: 「ヒカリ/☆☆☆☆ × 333」.

The labels "ATK" and "DEF" for the values on the bottom-right corner of Monster Cards are rendered as 「アタク」 Ataku and 「デフス」 Defusu respectively, which similarly to the English strings are abbreviated forms of the words Attack (アタック Atakku) and Defense (ディフェンス Difensu).

Card names that contain kanji are often abbreviated in Astral text. Kanji compounds in card names are often (but not universally) abbreviated to only the first kana of each kanji.

Characters[edit]

Kana[edit]

a i u e o
- a i u e o
k- ka ki ku ke ko
s- sa shi su se so
t- ta ? tsu te to
n- na ? nu ne no
h- ha hi fu ? ho
m- ma mi mu me mo
y- ya yu yo
r- ra ri ru re ro
w- wa - - wo
a i u e o
g- ga gi gu ge go
z- za ji zu ze zo
d- da ? zu de do
b- ba bi bu ? bo
p- pa pi pu ? po
n
n

Numbers[edit]

Each number is represented by a ten spoked wheel, with a dot outside. Counting the number of spokes clockwise from the top of the circle, until the dot is reached gives the number it represents.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Symbols[edit]

×
× · ☆ / ( ) “ ” . Symbol-Astral-。.png

Words[edit]

Number Number C
Number Number C
No.ナンバーズ カオスNo.ナンバーズ

Attributes[edit]

Attribute glyphs are only used symbolically, in the Attribute icon of cards. In card text, Attributes are spelled out in the Astral glyph equivalent of kana.

LIGHT DARK WATER EARTH
LIGHT DARK WATER Symbol-Astral-EARTH.png

Cards[edit]

The following cards have been shown in Astral glyphs.

References[edit]

  1. "Vジャンプ7月特大号掲載記事:第4回 『COLLECTION PACK 2020(コレクションパック2020)』の収録カードを公開!". YU-GI-OH.jp. Konami. 11 May 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  2. @ikki1960 (April 14, 2022). "#あれ実は私なんです 遊戯王ゼアル、アストラル文字制作" [#ThatWasMeActually Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Creation of Astral glyphs] (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via Twitter.